William Gaddis - A Folic Of His Own

BAGBY

Why, we've one shaft sunk four hundred and thirty eight feet, and you cannot expect men to have kindly thoughts down there, whoever they are. And now, the kind that's come in, with the need for coal what it is? There's foreigners and all manner of undesirables, with their striking and looking for trouble. They get down there in the dark together and think up some new deviltry the minute you've settled an old, you meet one demand for them and they'll think up another. There's no end to their ingratitude. No, they want a tap on the head now and again, as your uncle would say, to knock some gratitude back into them.

Edging up to the desk at downstage center as he talks, BAGBY twists his head to get a look at the letters opened there as THOMAS turns thoughtfully from the window and crosses to downstage center slowly, treating BAGBY in an almost humouring but patronizing way, and with an assumed reassurance he had not had in Act I.

THOMAS

My uncle has said all he had to say. I don't know how I shall convince you, Bagby, if the sight of him didn't, hunched lifeless here over his accounts, as you told me, one morning when you came in?

(PICKING UP PAPER, HOLDS IT OUT)

And his house up in Norwegian Street? Here's a bill from the Pinkertons, for a guard on it. Who are you guarding, his ghost? I told you to sell that house, not to guard it.

BAGBY

But to sell it off now? Ah, for you to stay in it yourself, that's another matter. I wouldn't care to stay in it if I was you, of course, and the men in the temper they are. It wouldn't be the first that they'd burned it to the ground, and you in it, watchman and all.

THOMAS

(IMPATIENTLY, SITTING DOWN AT THE DESK)

And why should they harm it? Haven't I been fair to them? Don't they know me by now? Yes, you've said so yourself, they know me for a just man. And has there been one accident? Even one, since I took up here?

(HOLDS BILL OUT TO BAGBY, RETURNING TO MAIL ON THE DESK)

No, here. I've told you, I want order. I want order here… but

(MUTTERING)

I won't hire murderers…

BAGBY

(STANDING BEFORE THE DESK, WITH MOCK AFFRONT)

Murder? Now how many's been murdered then? Surely a head knocked in now and again an't murder? And when two days later you'll see the same head bobbing up and asking for it again?

(PICKING UP A NEWSPAPER, POINTING OUT HEADLINE)

Here, 'Coal operators may be forced to suspend operations until the militia draft is ended.' You're an owner, whatever else you may be, fair or not. And that's reason enough for them to burn you and your house to the ground right there. Do you see…? where it speaks of the 'lawless foreign element' that's come in, with the demand for labour what it is now?

(PAUSING TO TAKE A JAWBREAKER FROM HIS WAISTCOAT POCKET AND POP IT INTO HIS MOUTH)

When men behave like savages, after all, with no respect for law and order, how must they be treated? Why, like savages! Take them one by one they may be fine fellows, as you say, but get them together they'll rise up and go wild with their brawling and drink and howling for justice, with no respect for decent people like ourselves.

(CRUNCHING DOWN ON THE JAWBREAKER)

You must knock a bit of justice into them now and again…

(SITTING A HAM FAMILIARLY UP AGAINST THE DESK, LEANING ACROSS)

And I might add, sir, you've made no friends here since you came, and it's not as though you mightn't need them, before you're done.

THOMAS

(SITTING BACK, HALF DERISIVELY)

We've made friends, haven't we Bagby?

BAGBY

(IMPULSIVELY CANDID, AS THOUGH TAKEN OFF GUARD)

I hope so sir…

(RECOVERING HIS CONFIDENTIAL DETACHMENT)

Ah, but I meant… them with influence. The other mine operators, the foundry owners, the bankers… they wonder about you, now and again, you know. I've stood up to them for you of course, but it's some of the changes you've made for the men here, giving in to them where your uncle stood fast. It's not… playing the game, you might say, doing such things on your own without consulting together… though I've told them, of course…

THOMAS

(AMUSED BUT ANNOYED)

Told them what.

BAGBY

(REASSURINGLY)

There, I haven't repeated some of the things you've said, no. Of your being the master here with the men's consent… no, have no fear of my repeating such things. I've stood up to them for you. But if you was to get out a bit more yourself…

THOMAS

(DISDAINFULLY, WAVING HAND TOWARD THE WINDOW)

Out? In that?

BAGBY

Out in society I mean to say, not tramping the streets alone at night, as you've done and unarmed at that. No, there's some that pass through here, United States senators and the like, cultured people like yourself, and speaking the French language and such things, and your father that served in that embassy there… and then that you've seen a bit of the South, it don't hurt in these times, you know, with many of them's never been down there. And a bit of influence, now and again, it don't hurt when you want things done…

(LEANING CLOSER OVER DESK, IN SPICY CONFIDENCE)

And then, if you cared to do yourself up a bit, that and move from the place you've been living up into a decent establishment, up in Mahantongo Street perhaps, dressed up a bit more in the fashion, you might say, instead of such worn clothes as mine here that's all I can afford, why… I know of a lady or two who'd find it an honour…

THOMAS

(SARCASTICALLY)

And how would you have me dressed, Bagby? In a uniform…?

(LOOKING AT A LETTER FROM TOP OF THE PILE)

From Brooks Brothers?

BAGBY

(DISCONCERTED, LOOKING ANXIOUSLY AT THE LETTER)

Ah, you… know the firm, sir? In New York?

(CRANING NECK TO LOOK AT THE LETTER)

Gentlemen's clothiers… a fine old firm…

THOMAS

(HOLDING THE LETTER BACK, READS AND COMMENTS ACIDLY)

It sounds like just the place. Here's a mention of a contract for 'twelve thousand uniforms which were delivered at a net price of nine dollars fifty…' You've dealt with them?

BAGBY

(GUARDEDLY, BACKING OFF)

Not directly myself, I've had friends, influential friends…

THOMAS

(READS AND COMMENTS ACIDLY)

Yes, I'd like to see myself in one of these uniforms! Here, 'of inferior material, strange and outlandish cut, and ingenious construction…' I like that. 'Pocketless, buttonless, and otherwise devoid of necessary entity…'

BAGBY

(RECOVERING EXPANSIVELY, STANDING BACK)

There, that was all straightened out you know. The newspapers tried to make it a scandal but some very prominent people stepped in and straightened it out. There was some that let on that the state officers had conspired with the manufacturers there, but it was all straightened out. The soldiers was left with some rags, the Brooks Brothers with some money, and the people reading the papers with a new scandal. Why, some of them prominent people that straightened it out, I know them myself, you know, people with influence…

THOMAS

(COLDLY, HANDING OVER THE LETTER)

I gathered you did. This letter is addressed to you. And let me tell you, Bagby, when I want company, when I want influence I'll find it myself. If there's one thing money can buy that's worth the having, it's privacy, do you hear? Privacy…! there. Where are the walls I've asked for here, instead of this glass cage I'm in?

BAGBY

But you wouldn't be able to see what's going on, with walls all about you and nowhere to look but the window? and out at the pits? Your uncle liked to see what went on. Here, he'd tap on the glass with the ring he wore, and I'd be in in an instant. A look from him through the glass, and I'd know what he wanted.

THOMAS

(CURTLY, RETURNING TO THE MAIL)

Now you know what I want, and you see to it.